creative jewish mom

Harvest Your Own Rose Hips And Benefit From Their Amazing Qualities!

I have large white rose standards (a rose bush grafted onto a trunk to give a certain formal look that roses don't generally have) planted in a large built in container at the entrance to our home, and since I am generally very diligent about trimming off spent blooms, I almost never see rose hips in my garden. This year however, I decided to experiment with getting more height by not trimming the spent blooms (plus it was a very wet winter, and who wants to go out and trim rose bushes?) and so today when I at long last went out to give my large container garden some attention I decided to harvest all the orange rose hips that had grown, as I knew they were good for something, but not what exactly! So I kept them on their stems to photograph them, and then started learning about all the uses of rose hips, and boy was I happy that I learned something new as a product of my possible laziness or container garden neglect! Speaking of learning something new, my daughter just got some new school books in the mail, and upon taking a look at the college Chemistry course she said, "I think I might need a tutor for this one." Fortunately, I just discovered that there is an amazing sight of online tutors called tutorhunt.com which is a great resource for so many students of all ages, with all the credentials of the tutors listed, as well as their hourly wages.

Okay, lets learn more about rose hips! 

Hexagon Orange Juice Bites

This Passover we are enjoying the simplest yet oh so delicious treat, hexagon orange juice bites, frozen of course! What can I tell you? Passover is the time for eating fresh and basic food, and with many opting not to purchase processed food, or the bare minimum, squeezing your own juice and making some shaped ice cubes truly fits the bill! I had been saving my hexagon silicon molds together with the Passover dishes, as I figured it would be a great time to use them, though now I'm thinking I'd like to start making these delicious little popsicle bites in a range of colors to serve for shabbos desert, so the trays may just be left behind when we pack away all the dishes! And then I'll have an excuse to get some more in a different shape! Keep on reading to see the molds I used......

Chocolate Almond Date Balls Are No Bake And Healthy As Can Be!

Passover  is sadly coming to an end, and we have one last shabbat (those outside of Isreal have 2 days of holiday) to enjoy matzo (we enjoy it!) with all the homemade Moroccan salads that taste especially amazing on Passover. I'm  looking in my  pantry and I discover that i bought tons of dates, in order to make almond date balls, so what am I waiting for? All the teens in the family have gone on outings with friends today, so I guess it is time to get off the computer and into the kitchen, shabbat is coming! The chocolate date balls are truly delicious and can even be passed off as junky dessert, so maybe keep it to yourself! Or on the otherhand, maybe just keep them for yourself to pull out when everyone else is eating the junk?

How To Sprout Mung Beans And Use Them In A Colorful Salad!

We are all relieved to say goodbye to 2020, though the silver lining is that is gave many of us the chance to try some new things, and for me one of those things is sprouting! Now that I've got a bit of experience under my belt, I just had to share with you our new family favorite, sprouted mung beans! They are packed with nutrients, truly delicious, and so simple to sprout that they've become a weekly staple in our home. They can be eaten raw, or cooked, though we enjoy them the most in a colorful mixed vegetable salad, perhaps with a bit of quinoa added! And to my great surprise, when I shared this salad with a few neighbors they (and their kids, gasp!) loved it so much they have jumped on the sprouting wagon as well! So get some mung beans and lets get started. One important note: sprouting in general can lead to growth of non-desirable bacteria, so if you are pregnant, or have health issues do cook the sprouts and/or sprout mostly in the fridge, which I'll mention below. Okay, ready?

Homemade Almond Milk Tastes SO Much Better

 Yes, indeed dear readers, there is no comparison between store bought almond milk and homemade almond milk, well at least not the various brands of almond milk i have tried. I have been making my own almond milk on and off for about five years, and lately for the last three or so months. You see I am eating a 90% plant based diet, and almond milk is my whitener of choice for that morning cup of coffee. Of course, coconut milk is also totally delicious, but quite high in fat, so not an option at the moment......sigh. What about soy milk you ask? Again, I have yet to taste a store bought processed milk alternative that I like, except for that coconut milk, the kind that comes in a carton and is from Thailand. So almond milk it is!

And those jars in the background? Why yes, I have also started to make lacto-fermented pickled vegetables as part of our diet as well, and have some jars pickling as I write this......

Lacto-Fermented Pickled Vegetables Are Healthy And Delicious!

Fermented foods like pickled vegetables, sourdough bread, kombucha tea, kefir and yogurt, to name a few, are all great ways to eat healthy pro-biotic foods in order to colonize your gut with good things. One of the interesting and really important things that I learned towards the end of 2016 is what a major role intestinal health plays in our overall health, and how oblivious traditional medicine is to this idea. If you or your loved ones are unfortunately dealing with health issues I highly highly recommend looking into the field of Functional Medicine that addresses the role that food plays regarding illness.

That said, it turns out that my family really has not been eating enough pro-biotic foods, as we are not big yogurt eaters, so I have decides to change this by providing an ongoing source of good bacteria via lacto fermented vegetables. And I have to say, everyone is really happy about this, well except for my husband who for some reason doesn't love the taste of my recent experiments, but I'm going to work on that one!

Pickling vegetables via lacto-fermentation is simple and really so much fun, keep reading for all you need to know, and pat yourself on the back for all those jars filled with lovely pickling veggies!

The Best Chicken Soup Recipe Ever With Lots Of Vegetables But No White Potatoes!

Photo courtesy of Bon Appetite, check out their chicken noodle soup recipe.

Last Friday afternoon as I was preparing our meals for shabbat, (and taking note of the cold weather forecast) I decided to whip up a big pot of chicken soup as the main course, and the results were so delicious I just had to share my recipe with you. And I'll admit, I love using this blog as a place for saving recipes, so there's something in it for me too! And yes, it is true that it is pretty hard to mess up chicken soup, but know the right veggies to add really makes a huge difference as far as the end result is concerned.

To make my chicken soup even more special and earn it main course status, I also made some croutons, which everyone loved, and they are certainly many steps above the traditional "soup nuts" that so many Jewish families serve with their soup. Just saying folks, those soup nuts are just about the least healthy thing to get your family used to eating, so do keep that in mind!

Ah yes, the recipe, no problem, just keep on reading.....

Sugar Free Biscotti With Dried Fruit And Nuts

I love biscotti, what can I say, but I don't love the idea of eating a cookie packed with sugar and wheat, even if it is low-fat, as most biscotti are. So, I decided it was time to come up with a sugar free biscotti recipe, even though I'm not exactly an expert baker! Experimenting in the kitchen can have all kinds of results, but I have to say, my daughter and I really loved these fruit filled oat biscotti, even if my young boys crinkled up their noses and didn't even finish the pieces I gave them. Silly boys, I guess they need some chocolate chips thrown in there, sigh.

So I will say, these biscotti are for those who have shunned the taste of processed, sugar laden, white flour baked goods and whose tastes lean in the all natural, not so sweet direction. And I won't claim to have come up with the end-all in recipes, but it certainly is good enough to share, and maybe one of you will have fun tweaking it some more? I would love to make an egg-free version so that these could be classified as vegan biscotti, any ideas? And I do wish that these were crisper, like real biscotti. These are much softer, not sure why, maybe I needed to bake them at a lower temperature, so that they would bake longer without burning, next time! And just by the way, one can make biscotti that are vegan, and if you are vegan or want to incorporate more vegan foods in your diet, check out more tips for vegan deserts and lifestyle from Vegan Liftz

Moroccan Matbucha Cooked Tomato Salad

Matbucha, said with a gutteral "ch" is a cooked tomato relish, that is cooked for many hours over a low flame, and whose recipe differs greatly depending on whom you ask!  Here in Israel it is called a "salad" and is a universal dish eaten with challah at the shabbat table, together with an array of other salads (many other salads if you are Moroccan) that precede the fish course on Friday night.

Since matbucha is actually of Moroccan origin, I'm going to go out on a limb and tell you that the recipe I use is the real thing, and truly the most delicious. My recipe didn't actually come from my husband's family but rather from a Moroccan woman who told me "this is the real way" and after trying it myself and making it for many years, I have to agree. The only thing at all difficult about this salad is that you need to cook it for quite a few hours, and to watch the pot, but I was thinking that it could certainly be made in crock pot for those of you who dare!

This salad is so popular in our family, that if it were absent from the shabbat table I can almost be certain that there would be actual crying, Between you and me, I would miss it too so I'm planning on testing my theory!

Cruciferous Vegetable Salad With Carrot Hearts

Have you heard the news about cruciferous vegetables and their wonderful health benefits? They have properties that enable one to greatly fight the preventive war against cancer, and so everyone should eat them daily. The good news is that the list is quite extensive and varied, and even for those like me that have to worry about not eating bugs in things like the very healthy kale, and who don't have bok choy readily available, there are still lots more veggies on the list!

This salad, which I made using white cabbage, kohlrabi and radishes, has three cruciferous vegetables in it, and is fresh and delicious. Dress it with an olive oil and lemon juice dressing, with salt and pepper, or choose to consume your fats in the form of seeds, and make a techina based dressing with vinegar or lemon juice, that works wonderfully with crisp veggies. For some interest toss in some black sesame seeds or even a few dried no sugar added cranberries, and well, yumm!